Chinese trainmakers on track for merger

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China’s central government may be planning to engineer a mega-merger between its two largest trainmakers - a pair of state-owned giants that currently dominate the world in terms of sales and are vigorous rivals for contracts at home and abroad.

The merger, apparently designed to streamline technology development and prevent CNR and CSR undercutting one another in the hunt for overseas orders, could reduce the intensity of price competition when countries such as the UK throw large rail projects like HS2 open to international bidding.

The two Chinese companies, which have between them made around £700 million in overseas sales in